Continuing the discussion from Comic Books, Graphic Novels, Sequential Art, & you (Part 1) - #2061 by daphaknee.
Previous discussions:
I can’t believe how good these are
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From “Balder Must Die!” in Journey into Mystery #107, August 1964. Stan Lee script, Jack Kirby pencils, Vince Colletta inks, Artie Simek letters.
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I’ve started reading the 1970s Savage Sword of Conan. Published alongside Conan the Barbarian, but black and white and technically a magazine rather than a comic to dodge the Comics Code. So far I’m finding a lot of the stories fun and the artwork is often very good.
The essays are fun to read, too. They discuss, for example, the interactions between Robert Howard (creator of Conan), H.P. Lovecraft, and Clark Ashton Smith.
There sure are a lot of different Conan comics out there, I’ve recently learned.
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The comics take some of the edges off, but unfortunately there’s a lot of inherent racism in Conan–beyond what’s there in '70s comics in general, I mean; even a bit beyond the racism inevitable in any fictional universe of biologically based good and evil–in just about any early English-language fantasy, for instance. And Lovecraft was virulently racist.
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I can only read conans dialogue here in tulpas impression of him
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Interesting article about how modern Conan writers are approaching this:
I also read this the other day. Some very nice artwork and although it takes place in an interesting future world the story seems a little rushed and simplistic at times. But I definitely like it enough to read book 2. (You kind of have to because this book is mostly setup for whatever comes next, which I don’t know because I haven’t read the original Moorcock novels.)
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Moorcock is famous for occasionally writing books over a weekend when he needed the cash
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I did not know this! : D
To me he’s famous for appearing as a smooth dandy in this interview from his younger days ^ _^
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To each their own, but if the property owners for some bizarre reason came to me and said hey do you want to adapt this racist story or write a new story starring this character who originally starred in racist stories I would say no, that is not a thing I want to do.
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I bought and read these many years ago. Widely available, usually around $5-10 each at comic shops or the flea markets. The news print magazine format is really nice. There are also a few issues in jumbo size that are like 18 inches tall. Sometimes you get a Red Sonja or Krull story in there.
I sort of assumed he was on some level racist because of the time period and genre. I dont recall which stories I read in the comic vs the short story omnibus I eventually bought so I dont know if savage sword gets racist. But in that omnibus, Vale of Lost Women really hits ya with the racism. The author is clearly racist, the captured woman is clearly racist but Conana is depicted as not like, smart or civilized enough to be properly racist himself. Which is extra gross but also fucking weird. Maybe Im wrong about some aspect of that but Im not going to look it up to find out. Edit: nevermind
I don’t know that we need more Conan. I get that you can piggyback on the existing world and branding to make a new thing but all of the original Conan stories Ive read work if you know nothing about the lore.
That is to say, the lesson of Conan is that you dont need hyboria, you dont need Conan even, to write a Conan style adventure.
I regret posting
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Disagree. Conan’s primary reason for helping the Annoying Woman at the center of Vale of Lost Women is the offense he takes at the idea of black hands touching her lily white skin.
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I have recently realised how primally important reading some comics every day is to my spiritual well being. This is something to do with growing up in a weird psuedo-dictatorship (Singapore). American comics were really a window into the outside world for me, yes even the basic sh*t like Marvel.
mean yeah but in terms of specific titles I really want to check ou the Joe Casey / Chriscroos X-Title (forgot the name?) that got cancelled after 5 issues … I bought an issue of Amazing Spider-Man a while ago and it was fairly not-terrible - every one is someone else, Norman Osborne is Spider-man, Ben Reilly is pretending to be Peter Parker. Interested in that Department of Truth with the Bill Seinkewicz-homage art style.
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damn. wow.
We’ve never needed Conan stories. RE Howard wasn’t even writing the best sword and sorcery tales at the time. CL Moore’s Jirel of Joiry stories, Clark Ashton Smith’s Zothique and Hyperborea stories were all infinitely better in terms of prose, craft, not being the most racist works of literature up to that point in the 20th century, etc.
A few years later, we started getting Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories which imbued the nascent genre with great characterization and humor, something as campy as sword and sorcery desperately needed. Even the most problematic leiber story is woke compared to howard’s works.
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The Conan topic is serious, but hey anyway, I read this nipple battle of high school boys today, recommend to you fellas.
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R.I.P. Sam Kieth
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His run on MCP with Wolverine and Cyber was one of my favorites as a kid. Kieth and Sienkiewicz were my favorite artists. Kieth never did conventions around here and for my entire life I always hoped he’d come through.
I recently realized how much of role Bill Messner-Loebs played in the Maxx and was a general influence on Kieth. Even before their actual collaboration, that one MCP cover with Wolverine hanging from the cliff was straight out of Journey.
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